Student Perspectives: Keep Cool and Save the Redwoods

Student Perspectives: This blog series was written by San Francisco State University students for the Recreational Use of Parks and Protected Areas course taught by Dr. Nina Roberts in Fall 2015. The goal of Dr. Roberts’ blog assignment was to show how student support of redwood parks can create new ways to foster equal access to nature by diverse communities. For this assignment, each student visited a local redwood park and wrote about their experience. Enjoy!

Keep Cool and Save the Redwoods

by Andrew O’Bryan

For Bay Area residents, Redwood Regional Park is right in our backyard. Photo by Miguel Vieira, Flickr Creative CommonsWe go through our lives doing similar things day after day. We wake up and check our phones, and then we go to school or work, and finally, finish our day running errands or relaxing. But there is one HUGE thing that most people don’t even see or realize is right in our backyard: There are redwood trees that we sometimes take for granted and might not really think about visiting.

So, why should you visit?

Great outdoors experience viewing these massive trees

Relatively cheap and sometimes free

Allows for an adventure to discover new things about yourself and nature

Group size does not matter — go alone and enjoy yourself, or go with friends and family and create bonds with others

Enjoy them before it is too late!

These are just a few reasons why I think you should visit these forests. Personally, being in nature really allows for me to put daily worries into perspective, and realize that most of my problems will soon be resolved and that the world around us is more important. Another thing is that if we do not show interest in visiting these areas, we could lose them! We do not want our parks to be shut down and switched to other uses.

What can YOU do to keep these forests around?

Visit them. Allow yourselves and others to enjoy these views for many generations

Protect them. Take responsibility for what happens to the redwood parks

Donate. Most of these areas could use the extra funds to keep their doors open and their trails and facilities maintained. Without funding, these places may have to shut down

We need to act now to save these areas and keep people visiting and enjoying them for years to come. With these forests gone, we would lose some valuable shade and our long history with these trees. Keep it cool and save the redwoods.

Student Perspectives

We appreciate being able to contribute our experiences and our knowledge to the Save the Redwoods League community through these blog entries and hope that our work can support your cause and our communities.

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